1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to brayers, or hand-operated ink-stamping devices of small size typically used for making proofs and, more particularly, to a brayer provided with a brayer ball, fabricated with a patterned ball cover formed on a spherical core body and having an external pattern consisting of a variety of letters, figures and/or characters, thus smoothly rolling on a sheet in any desired direction without being limited in its rolling direction during a stamping process.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIGS. 1a and 1b are views of a conventional brayer. As shown in the drawings, the conventional brayer 100 comprises a roller holder 200 and a cylindrical brayer roller 400. The roller holder 200 has a handle 110 at its rear portion and two brackets 220 at its front head portion. The two brackets 220 integrally extend downward from opposite sides of the front head portion of the roller holder 200, with a yoke bearing 210 formed at the lower end of each bracket 220 to hold each end of a roller shaft 300. The brayer roller 400 is a cylindrical member having a predetermined length, and is fitted over the roller shaft 300 so as to be rotatable around the roller shaft 300. The brayer roller 400 is made of rubber, and is embossed on its circumferential surface to form a desired pattern, consisting of a variety of letters, figures and/or characters.
In order to stamp a desired pattern onto a sheet using the brayer 100, a user rolls the brayer roller 400 on an inkpad to allow the patterned surface of the roller 400 to be smeared with ink. Thereafter, the brayer roller 400 is rolled on a target sheet, such as a paper sheet, to stamp the pattern of the roller 400 consisting of letters, figures and/or characters onto the sheet.
During a stamping process using such a conventional brayer 100, the desired pattern of the brayer roller 400 is effectively stamped onto a sheet only when the user rolls the brayer roller 400 on the sheet by pulling or pushing the brayer 100 linearly by the hand, gripping the handle 110, to form a linear print. When the brayer roller 400 is rolled on a sheet to form a circular print as shown in FIG. 1b, the inside portion of the longitudinal cylindrical roller 400 around the center of the circular print is rolled at a low speed with a small radius xe2x80x9cH1xe2x80x9d.
On the contrary, the outside portion of the longitudinal cylindrical roller 400 around the outer edge of the circular print is rolled at a high speed with a large radius xe2x80x9cH2xe2x80x9d. Due to such a difference in the radius and rolling speed between the two portions of the brayer roller 400 while rolling the brayer 100 through a circular or curved trace, the letters, figures and/or characters of the pattern stamped onto the sheet are undesirably distorted and deformed. In addition, the stamped effect in such a case is not uniform since the stamped pattern is undesirably, partially faint or broken at a portion stamped by the outside portion of the roller 400. Furthermore, the inside portion of the stamped pattern is smeared with an excessive amount of ink, and so it is clearly and thickly stamped, but is not easily or quickly dried, thus being likely to undesirably run over the sheet.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a ball brayer, which is provided with a brayer ball fabricated with a patterned ball cover, having an external pattern consisting of letters, figures and/or characters and formed on a spherical core body, the brayer ball thus smoothly rolling on a sheet in any desired direction without being limited in its rolling direction during a stamping process, and preventing a stamped pattern from being distorted, deformed, or undesirably, partially faint or broken.
In order to accomplish the above object, the present invention provides a ball brayer, comprising a roller holder unit having a front head and a handle; a dome-shaped first upper cap unit seated in the front head of the roller holder unit; a dome-shaped second upper cap unit provided with a cylindrical top rod, the second upper cap unit being seated in the first upper cap unit by the top rod inserted into an inner fitting cylinder of the first upper cap unit; a brayer ball rotatably seated in the second upper cap unit and consisting of a spherical core body, and a ball cover formed on the spherical core body and having a pattern on its external surface; and a lower support cap unit detachably mounted to the second upper cap unit, and having an opening for allowing the brayer ball to be partially exposed outside the second upper cap unit.